US President George W. Bush has announced that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended".
Speaking aboard the USS Abraham Lincolnaircraft carrier hours after seven US soldiers were wounded in a fresh outbreak of violence in Iraq, Mr Bush said the six-week war to topple Saddam was "one victory in a war on terror".
Mr Bush said: "In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country".
Mr Bush told the American people in his televised speech that the United States still had important objectives in Iraq.
"We have difficult work to do. . . . The transition from dictatorship to democracy will take time, but it is worth every effort. Our coalition will stay until our work is done," the president said.
"The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror," he said. "We have removed an ally of al-Qaeda and cut off a source of terrorist funding and this much is certain - no terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime because the Iraqi regime is no more".
In the city of Falluja west of Baghdad, angry Iraqis attacked a US base yesterday in apparent retaliation for the killing of 15 residents by US troops who fired at crowds twice this week, the military said.